"Heave-ho~"
BOOM!!!
Inside the [Pillar of Earth] at the pinnacle of the [Throne].
This was an imaginary domain carved out by the Authority of the Void. The space inhabited by the Three Pillar Gods was countless times more vast than it appeared from the outside.
At the epicenter of a shockwave that was just a tiny bit shy of tearing space itself apart, a bright golden sphere—Cheche's headbutt sent it flying, nearly knocking it out of existence.
"Three to one."
Cheche, in her white-haired loli form, held up three fingers.
"Dodgeball. Little Bai loses."
"Total score is…"
With a wave of her small hand, Cheche pulled a board covered in densely packed characters out of thin air. Lu Xing had no idea where she got it from. It looked small but could record an immense amount of information, said to be a supreme treasure salvaged from some world bubble… Of course, in Cheche's hands, its function was no different from a blackboard with a self-replenishing piece of chalk.
While Cheche was recording the dodgeball results, Lu Xing opened a portal and sent himself back. This was only possible by borrowing Cheche's Dominion. Four thousand years was a long time for a mortal race, but for a [Scion of Long], it wasn't even enough to pass the "embryonic stage."
Of course, this referred to Lu Xing's main body.
The avatar he was playing with Cheche was already capable of normal combat. It was just that because his main body had yet to hatch, his appearance was still a sphere… In any case, it was at least a sphere that could cast skills. It was a good thing Lu Xing had created enough avatars back then, otherwise, he would have had no way to deal with the hidden dangers brought by the expansion of the Empire's territory.
Over the span of 4,000 years, the Empire had made contact with a total of 23 world bubbles in the Quantum Sea, but only 5 had been "salvaged" or had their "coordinates anchored."
One was anchored near the surface of the Sea; one was anchored within Durandal's body; and one was anchored in orbit around Earth (this served as the foundation for the "artificial moon" that replaced the Monarch's main body as Earth's new satellite).
Of the two salvaged world bubbles, one contained a nearly extinct civilization with fewer than 30,000 individuals, who were "fused" and became a part of Earth. The other had just been "cut" into the water and hadn't yet figured out its own situation before it was, in every sense of the word, directly annihilated by the Empire. Since it had just fallen into the Sea, salvaging this resource-rich planet wasn't difficult… it had now been shattered and hung in orbit around Saturn.
---o---
As for the leaves of the Tree, the number of observed worlds was as vast as the stars.
But observation did not mean they could be entered without caution.
Most of the observed civilizations already had "Honkai" present. For these leaves so close to the Quantum Sea, Lu Xing was somewhat worried about the "other children" the Honkai God had spoken of. Before he fully hatched, the Empire's primary policy was to "go the long way around."
As for the worlds where Honkai had not yet descended, most were quite distant from the solar system. Lu Xing planned to approach them slowly. There were plenty of good things in the Sea, and the Empire's development was far from the bottleneck that would require absorbing other leaves.
Until now.
Ever since his position as the moon was replaced, Lu Xing had proactively moved his main body into the Sun's interior. The [Dominion of Immortality] was no joke. The Imaginary energy supplied by six Paths simultaneously made his body grow far faster than an ordinary [Scion of Long]. In a mere 4,000 years, Lu Xing had gained a 40-point increase in his attributes. Without external help, Lu Xing's attributes grew by 1 point every 100 years, and now they had reached… a full 1,000 points.
Attributes were, to some extent, linked to mass.
Submerging himself in the Sun was a relatively reliable plan for Lu Xing: it wouldn't cause too much of an impact on the solar system's operations, and there was extra energy to supplement his growth.
He had a premonition.
The moment his attributes broke through to 1001 would be the moment the dragon egg hatched.
In addition to the 40 attribute points from four millennia, the completion of two missions had also granted him an extra 2 levels and a total of 4 attribute points, which contributed to his current four-digit attribute score. When the civilization he led met the conditions, it also counted as completing a mission.
The reason he had only completed two missions was that his mission progress had reached an entirely new stage:
---o---
Mission: Complete the assessment of a civilization from zero.
Reward: Level +1, All Attributes +5, Occurrences: ∞.
---o---
Mission: Obtain a new Dominion / Enhance one of your own Dominions.
Reward: Level +1, All Attributes +5, Occurrences: ∞.
---o---
That's right.
The missions provided by the System, or rather, the power provided by the [Dominion of Order], had formally entered an endless mode.
The Empire was already considerably powerful.
It was time to let them become a catalyst for his hatching. A number of target leaves that fit Lu Xing's needs had already been shortlisted.
"Cheche."
"Hm?"
"What do you think… just go with your gut. Which of these leaves looks better?"
The golden sphere swayed gently in mid-air.
A colossal star chart instantly blanketed the entire sky. The brightest ones, marked out, were Lu Xing's candidate planets.
"Umm…"
Cheche tilted her head back and stared for a long while.
Just as Lu Xing thought she was about to fall asleep—
"This one."
"This one?"
"This one's no good."
"…"
Cheche gestured across a not-insignificant region of the star chart.
"What's wrong with this one?"
"There's a big stingray nearby!"
Cheche gestured emphatically, even using her thick tail to help illustrate.
"A big stingray?"
"Yeah! When Cheche was out playing before, she ran into a big stingray around here that was bigger than Little Bai… no, not bigger than the current Little Bai."
Bigger than his past self but smaller than his current self?
Lu Xing pondered for a moment, and based on the shape Cheche described—
"A Planetary-class Honkai Beast, Ganesha."
"I can basically lock this down as the civilization where 'Honkai Impact 2nd' takes place."
Leaving aside the question of the power levels in the Honkai Impact 2nd world, and not to mention whether or not its Honkai Consciousness contained one of his "brothers or sisters," the key point was that it didn't meet his mission requirements at all. It could be passed over for the current stage. He could perhaps test the waters when he grew stronger, but definitely not now.
"In that case…"
Lu Xing reconsidered for a moment. Just as he was about to set a target—
"Your Majesty."
Amidst the crackle of flashing lightning, Shesha slowly materialized in his humanoid form within the space of the [Pillar of Earth].
"…"
"Shesha."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Shesha bowed with utmost reverence.
"Although you made quite a grand entrance, I still need to remind you—this is a special space created by Cheche. The internal and external laws differ to some degree and are constantly changing, which is what makes dodgeball so difficult. Especially when you use teleportation…"
Even without limbs, Shesha, who had been awake for some time, could judge from the Monarch's rolling momentum that something was terribly wrong.
He had accidentally stepped on Cheche's tail.
BOOM!!!